Dog that mauled a young girl will be euthanized

Napalm, a 90-pound American bulldog, is the same dog that bit a 12-year-old Janesville boy and his father in October.

The dog was described as suddenly “going after” the girl while she, her mother, Mary Sather, and her aunt, Rosanne Jensen, sat in Jensen's living room in the 500 block of South Jackson Street, according to a Janesville police report.

The girl suffered a large gash under her arm, a puncture wound to her left shoulder and lost a piece of her right ear. She had several bite marks and scratches on other parts of her body.

Brian Jensen, the dog's owner and Rosanne Jensen's son, was not home at the time of the incident. Brian Jensen is cooperating with police.

Brian Jensen is cooperating with police, and he allowed them to send the dog to the Dane County Humane Society in Madison Saturday to be quarantined. Monday, he granted police permission to euthanize the dog.

Janesville police requested the dog be put down because of its “aggressive disposition and future threat to the community,” said Sgt. Todd Kleisner.

The earliest the dog could be euthanized is Tuesday, Dec. 24, because the law requires a dog be tested three times during a 10-day period to check for rabies or other diseases it might have passed on to victims, Kleisner said.

The dog will remain at the humane society until that time.

Kleisner stressed police do not request every dog reported for biting be separated from its home and euthanized. A dog must be involved in two or more biting incidents to show a pattern of aggressive behavior before such a request is made.

The bite victim was taken to Mercy Hospital and Trauma Center, Janesville, on Saturday after the 7 p.m. attack, but she later was transferred to a different medical facility for more specialized care, Janesville police Lt. Terry Sheridan said Monday.

The girl's mother and aunt, who tried to intervene during the attack, suffering minor injuries. They did not seek medical attention.

In the October incident, Napalm was chewing a bone when the 12-year-old grabbed it. The dog bit the child in the back of the neck and would not let go, according to a police report.

When the boy's father, Tyler Schoff, came into the kitchen, he was able to get the dog off his son but was bitten in the ear.